The word “abortion” first appeared in a Republican platform in 1976,
when the Party hadn’t yet made up its mind on reproductive freedom. The
platform acknowledged that “the question of abortion is one of the most
difficult and controversial of our time.” The 1976 G.O.P. favored “a
continuance of the public dialogue on abortion,” which it called a
“moral and personal issue,” while expressing support for “those who seek
enactment of a constitutional amendment to restore protection of the
right to life for unborn children.”Decades later, there is no more in-between language. . . .

The
noxious “legitimate rape” comment by Todd Akin, Missouri congressman and Senate
candidate, has me once again pondering a simple question: Why do any women vote Republican?

The
Republican establishment rushed in to pressure Akin to drop out of the race —
something that he refused to do — in part because they want to win the seat,
win control of the Senate and win Missouri for Romney. A SurveyUSA poll earlier
this month — before “legitimate rape” — found Romney
and Obama in a statistical tie in the state. . . .

A rally hosted here Thursday on the steps of the capitol by this year’s “No Personhood Campaign”
featured speakers who decried government intervention into citizens’
private lives and admonished overreaching political activists who would
tap the organs of the state to solve perceived social ills. . . .

One of the scare tactics of opponents of the Affordable Care
Act was to float the idea that it would increase the abortion rate, by giving
women who were previously forced to give birth out of a lack of abortion
funding a chance at insurance coverage. This fear nearly tanked the law, and
only by signing an executive order that strongly limits the right of insurance
companies to cover abortion was Obama able to save his signature legislation.
Now new statistics have come out from the state of Massachusetts, whose health
care law signed by Mitt Romney is almost exactly like the ACA—except without
the abortion restrictions. Guess what? Instead of the predicted spike in
abortions, it turns out that expanding women's access to comprehensive health
care quite likely lowered
the abortion rate in Massachusetts. . . .